Obesity contributes to fuel crisis: research

PTIOct 26, 2006, 07.18pm IST

WASHINGTON: Just as tossing things out of the trunk of the car adds extra miles to the gallon, so does reducing the waistlines of drivers - a research has found.Chubby drivers and bulky passengers in their own ways contribute to the ongoing fuel crisis in America, researchers have found."The key finding is that almost a billion gallons of fuel are consumed each year because of the average weight gain of people living in the US since 1960," Sheldon Jacobson, a computer scientist at the University of Illinois has found. The researcher has tried to show that obesity is expensive on the roadways, and it's going to get worse."If our nation gets lighter - and healthier - one of the side benefits is that we will simply use less fuel," Jacobson said making the point that although Americans continue to gain weight, aggressive driving is also a contributory factor.Using health and passenger fuel consumption data between 1960 and 2003 Jacobson argued that a "heftier" America used 983 million gallons of gas more each year than while it was "slimmer" in the 1960s.That means an extra USD 7.7 million a day, or USD 2.8 billion a year for consumers.Jacobson's study has also shown that for every extra pound of human body weight in a vehicle equals an additional 39 million gallons of extra gasoline use collectively in a year.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that nearly 66 per cent of Americans are overweight and this racks up some USD 90 billions in health care costs to treat the problem.But being overweight is not the only issue; it is pointed out as obesity has become something of a force and challenge to be reckoned with.Faced with a surge in costs - billed at nearly USD 275 millions a year in extra fuel costs alone - some passenger airlines have started charging "heavy" fliers extra.